Austin Real Estate Team

Since the 1970s, Austin, Texas has been a mecca for American musicians, and more recently the waves of entrepreneurs and technicians of the computer industry. Today, this city of nearly 700,000 people wears many hats: "live music capital of the world;" political heart of the Lone Star State; the "Silicon Hills;" and college town with winning football teams. If you go back more than 160 years, the first people to pour into Austin were American pioneers following their dreams to a new land.

In the 1830s, Texas was the northernmost state of Mexico, a hard-scrabble place brimming with indians, rattlesnakes, cactus and Mexican troops. Onto the scene came Stephen F. Austin, the leader of a group of settlers seeking land and a new start. They decided to encamp on the banks of the Colorado River near an escarpment that later became known as the Balcones Fault, an uplifted geological formation that led out onto a wide and vast region of hills and river valleys. Austin, who became known as "the Father of Texas," signed a treaty with nearby Comanche, Apache and Tonkawa indians enabling him to found the village of Waterloo. The place where he negotiated the agreement is still known today as the Treaty Oak.

When Texas, through its battle for independence, succeded in wresting control of the land from Mexico, chose Waterloo as the capital of the fledgling Republic of Texas, they renamed it in honor of Austin. The "Texicans" who settled the area began farming and ranching, but they would hardly recognize the city today, as it plays its many roles as a center for technology, politics, education and fine arts.

The Colorado, which flooded the city in 1900 drowning 47 people, is now controlled by a series of seven dams and reservoirs that harness the big river and create a watery playground and prime shoreline for real estate. The city's codes restrict the height of downtown buildings so that the pink granite State Capitol building is visible from just about any direction. Suburbs and exurbs stretch to the north and west onto the hilly and river-laced land of the Texas Hill Country, and Austin's metropolitan area, including four surrounding counties, is now home to more than 1.4 million residents. And down on 6th Street, the plaintive and sometimes ecclectic sound of music--country and western, rock and roll, rhythm and blues and even jazz--can be heard issuing forth from the many bars, restaurants and clubs. Austin has more live music establishments per capita than any other American city, even more than Nashville and New Orleans, and proudly wears it's nickname "live music capital of the world."

As the world began to discover the Internet and the power of the computer, the low cost of housing and significantly lower cost of living in Austin drew thousands of Silicon Valley denizens to the Silicon Hills. In the 1990s, technology companies sprang up in Austin like weeds. The dot-com boom and bust cycle raised and lowered Austin's visibility in the computer industry until a University of Texas student named Michael Dell began building computers in his college dorm room and selling them to the public. Today, Dell Computer is the largest private employer in the city, with more than 17,000 employees. Units of federal, state and local government also fuel Austin's economy, with the University of Texas' 14,000 educators and staff being the largest among the city's public facilities.

The median annual household income in Austin tops $54,000, and a median price for an Austin home runs about $154,000. Blessed with mild year-round temperatures and sufficient rainfall, Austin is said to have the same light and air quality of the French Riviera where limestone cliffs tower over the blue Mediterranean Sea. Whether that's true or not, Austin does seem to have an abundance of artists.

Led by C&W legend Willie Nelson, the music industry strives and thrives in Austin. Nelson led a contingent of so-called "outlaw" musicians out of Nashville in the early 1970s, seeking to escape the smothering power of the giant record companies there. Today, hardly any mainstream artist even contemplates a new song or album without first taking it on the road to Austin where highly receptive and very appreciative audiences hold forth. Unknowns also flock to Austin, knowing they will get their chance before the nightly crowds.

The Texas Legislature comes to town every two years, looking for a fight and usually finding one. Texas politics, since the days of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the late President, have always been a rough and tumble, bareknuckles style as different factions square off boot toe to boot toe. Austin is a liberal town in a conservative state. It loves its politics and cultivates an atmosphere of eccentricity and alternative culture. There is even a locally-sponsored campaign called "Keep Austin Weird," that actually helps small, locally-owned businesses compete against huge national chains.

Austin is also the largest American city--it's 16th in U.S. rankings--without a major professional sports team. However, the University ot Texas Longhorns more than make up for that lacking. In 2005, the Longhorns captured the NCAA college football championship with an upset win in the Rose Bowl and the school's baseball team won the college World Series. With the cries of "Hook 'Em Horns" and the raising of the hand with only the first and last fingers extended to form the symbol of the Longhorn, who needs professional sports?

Austin loves its rowdy politicians, its eccentrics, its "outlaw" musicians and even its computer geeks. Austinites are warm, friendly people, like most Texans, and the city and its surrounding communities welcome the newcomer with a "Howdy, podnah" greeting that is effusive and sincere. If you like the more offbeat, Austin is the town you're looking for in which to live, work and raise a family.